


When Life Doesn't Make Sense

by bluemandycat



Category: Archvillain Series - Barry Lyga
Genre: Angst, M/M, Mike and Kyle go rogue together, Polyamory, The Villains Club was a big poly relationship, and with Kyle gone they have to pick up the pieces, relentless butchering of all things canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 12:34:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11759994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemandycat/pseuds/bluemandycat
Summary: Kyle has gone rogue with Mighty Mike to build the Mighty Mike Matrix. The Villains Club is left to pick up the pieces.





	When Life Doesn't Make Sense

**Author's Note:**

> hey waddup archvillain fandom it's me i'm back i published my book
> 
> enjoy

The Giggler found the Mad Mask kicking Kyle’s old bed.

 

Ever since Kyle had gone rogue, run away and went  _ hero  _ with his precious Mighty Mike, the Villains Club hadn’t been the same. They had had a perfectly structured dynamic since middle school, which had been abruptly been shattered. Ever since then, Walter had tried to fill Kyle’s shoes, but it wasn’t really working. Even Walter knew that.

 

They had shared a three-bedroom apartment ever since Kyle had moved out of his parents’ house. That was when they were in their twenties. Now, they were mid-thirty year olds, fully-fledged adults. They were supposed to have their lives together.

 

It had been an unspoken rule, ever since Kyle left, to not disturb his old room. He had left quite a bit behind. His workbench was still full of scrap, most of his clothes were still in his closet, and, worst of all, all of his old encoded journals were still here.

 

Walter had confiscated the journals, supposedly to crack their code. He claimed that he wanted leads on Kyle’s whereabouts, but the Giggler wasn’t so sure. He suspected that maybe holding onto a part of Kyle was just how Walter coped with the sudden hole in the group. He couldn’t blame him. The Giggler’s method of coping mostly involved eating too much junk food and scrolling through Kyle’s old social media accounts.

 

And the Mad Mask’s method of coping, apparently, was to destroy Kyle’s old room. He stared up at the Giggler with a wild glint in his one remaining eye. His mask obscured the rest of his face. The rest of the room was a mess.

 

“Jack,” asked the Giggler. “What are you doing?”

 

The Mad Mask kicked the bed again. “Venting,” he said, in a muffled voice.

 

The Giggler sighed. “Take off your mask. I can barely hear you.”

 

The Mad Mask’s shoulders slumped and he tilted his mask up his forehead, revealing one periwinkle blue eye and one mass of scar tissue. “Is this better?”

 

“Much,” the Giggler said. He sat down on the bed. “I take it that you’re not coping well?”

 

The Mad Mask snorted. “Nope. I’m doing the opposite of coping.”

 

“Moping?” supplied the Giggler.

 

“You got it.” The Mad Mask flopped onto the bed. 

 

“Walter’s not doing so well either,” the Giggler said.

 

“Yeah, no shit,” said the Mad Mask. “You think I haven’t noticed how he’s bent over Kyle’s books? Dude barely even eats anymore.”

 

“And he didn’t even like Kyle that much.”

 

“Man, I barely liked Kyle.” The Mad Mask splayed his fingers. “He was two parts annoying and one part adorable. We were at each other’s throats constantly--”

 

“Yeah, I know.” The Giggler swallowed. It took all his effort not to scream out that Kyle was perfect and that everyone else was an idiot for hurting him, but he held it in for the Mad Mask’s sake.

 

“--but I don’t know,” continued the Mad Mask, ignoring the Giggler. “Without him, life feels so…”

 

“Empty?”

 

“Broken.” The Mad Mask blinked (winked?), and to the Giggler’s astonishment, tears welled up. “He was like, the first person to treat me right.”

 

“I know what you mean,” said the Giggler. And he really did. Kyle had been the first one to ever give him any positive attention. He could still recall their first conversation, waiting outside the Great Nemesis’ office.

 

The Giggler had been there for mandatory counseling, on the grounds of him not being able to control his laughter. Kyle had gotten into an argument with Mighty Mike in English class. Clear as day, the Giggler could remember what Kyle had said. 

 

_ “So what are you in for?” _

 

_ “I’m bad at emotions. You?” _

 

_ “I’m bad at being nice.” _

 

_ “So, what, you’re like a bad boy or something?” _

 

_ “Something like that. If you’re bad at emotions, you could come hang out with me. My club could use a wild card.”  _

 

The Giggler had laughed at that, thinking that Kyle had been joking, and that had been that. Of course, Kyle hadn’t been joking, and the Giggler quickly found out that his “club” was for supervillains. But it didn’t matter. Even if Kyle had asked him to jump into a tornado, the Giggler probably still would have joined the Villains Club. It was his family, and heaven knows he was lacking in that department.

 

In fact, Kyle had been the only member of the Villains Club to have a real family. Walter had blown up his home dimension, and his family members in this reality didn’t recognize him. Jack had run away from home at age fourteen, and in his own words, he “wasn’t going back to that life if it killed him.” And as for the Giggler, he had a mess of a mother, an unknown father, and a half-sister that didn’t talk to him.

 

So they had carved out a life together. And then perfect Kyle had run away with his stupid hero and ruined everything.

 

“Dude, are you crying?” asked the Mad Mask, jerking the Giggler out of his head.

 

The Giggler wiped his eyes. “You were crying first.”

 

“Fair,” said the Mad Mask. “Might I ask why you were crying?”

 

“Just thinking about how we were each other’s first family.”

 

“So we were.” The Mad Mask laughed bitterly. “Well, wherever Kyle and Mike are, I hope they’re happy. They get to be a family now, without any villains dragging them down.”

 

“And what’s left for us?” the Giggler asked.

 

“The shell of a broken home, a scientist poring over the remains of a lost friend, an emotionally dysfunctional wild card, and an idiot left with a broken heart.” The Mad Mask sighed.

 

“Eh, better make that two idiots with broken hearts,” said the Giggler. He lay back and put his arms behind his head. “Heck, why not make it three? You know damn well that Walter isn’t decoding Kyle’s books because they were platonic.”

 

“Yeah, but what me and Kyle had wasn’t like what you and Kyle had. Or what Walter and Kyle had.”

 

“What?” asked the Giggler.

 

“We were more serious than that,” said the Mad Mask matter-of-factly.

 

“Excuse me?” gasped the Giggler. He sat up. “Don’t you dare tell me that me and Kyle--that I wasn’t serious about Kyle.”

 

The Mad Mask sat up too. “Easy, Gigg. I’m sorry, that came out wrong. What I meant was--”

 

“Look, save it,” snapped the Giggler. “You’re not the only one that cared--”

 

“You don’t understand--”

 

“I think I know--”

 

“I was going to ask him to marry me!” The Mad Mask’s voice seemed larger than his body, and whatever retort the Giggler had planned drained from him.

 

“You were?” the Giggler asked softly.

 

The Mad Mask nodded ruefully. “Had the ring picked out and everything. Was going to pop the question at the Bouring Lighthouse, when we went back to visit his parents.”

 

Somehow, the only thing that came out of the Giggler’s mouth was,“But what about me?”

 

The Mad Mask blinked. “What?”

 

“I thought it was going to be the four of us. I thought we weren’t going to do anything like that.” The Giggler fidgeted. He would have proposed years earlier if he had thought it was okay.

 

The Mad Mask shrugged. “It would have still been the four of us. Nothing would have changed.” But they both knew that that was a lie.

 

“Right,” said the Giggler. “But it doesn’t matter anymore. He’s not coming back.”

 

The Mad Mask’s shoulders slump. “And we’re not much of a team without him.”

 

The Giggler extended a pinky, and after a moment’s pause, the Mad Mask extended his and locked it with the Giggler’s. This had been their little secret handshake ever since they were teenagers, and it was a small oasis of comfort in the shaky, Kyle-less sea that life had become.

 

“You know that Wally’s going to want revenge on Kyle,” said the Giggler.

 

“And you know that we’re going to follow along,” retorted the Mad Mask.

 

“You know something?” said the Giggler, tightening his pinky. “Nothing makes sense since Kyle left, since we all loved him in our own ways. And yet, life will go on. I know that I can make my world make sense to me again. Kyle taught me that.”

 

“And how are you going to do that?” asked the Mad Mask.

 

“I may not know much,” said the Giggler, with an air of finality. “But I know that next time I see Mighty Mike, I’m going to kick his ass. And that’s enough for now.”

 

“Hear hear.”

**Author's Note:**

> kudos/comments/interaction with archvillain-fandom on tumblr much appreciated!


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